In defence of The Times (2)

Anyone reading Kenneth Wain would realise that of all the members of the European Union, only Ireland has a democratic constitution.

So, according to Prof. Wain, the huge Irish ''No'' to the Lisbon treaty can only be interpreted as ''the small guys standing up to the big guys''. It has always been taken for granted that all the 27 members of the EU enjoy sovereign equality.

Prof. Wain referred to a ''100,000 majority'', omitting to mention, conveniently no doubt, that 53 per cent of the 53 per cent turnout voted down the treaty. Nor did he mention that Brussels expected governments, not the people, to ratify, as democracy demands. Astonishingly, he also wrote: ''This is what the treaty is about'' while both the Irish Prime Minister and the Irish commissioner had made known that they had never read the treaty. And yet the Irish politicians wanted their voters to declare ''Yes'' when they, the voters, were equally ignorant of any of the contents of the treaty.

No less astonishing is that our politicians in Parliament unanimously ratified the Lisbon Treaty at one session without any discussion.

The European constitution was dead after the French and the Dutch voted against it. Dead also is the Lisbon treaty after its rejection by the Irish.